Leading Texas Republicans on Monday asked the Obama administration for greater flexibility to administer Medicaid聽鈥 a move that has gotten little traction in the past 鈥 while reiterating that they would not participate in an expansion of the program under the Affordable Care Act.
鈥淎ny expansion of Medicaid in Texas is simply not worth discussing,鈥 state Sen., R-Georgetown, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services, said at a press conference.
Schwertner and聽Lt. Gov. 聽both told reporters that the federal-state health聽insurance program for the poor聽and disabled聽was on an 鈥渦nsustainable trajectory鈥 of growing costs. In a letter, they asked the federal government for more wiggle room to administer the program, requesting cost-cutting changes to its benefits packages and seeking to require that Medicaid beneficiaries have or seek employment to get health coverage.
Similar requests by former Gov. for flexibility in spending Medicaid dollars聽failed under both Democratic and Republican presidents. About 4.1 million Texans are on Medicaid, which constitutes about 29 percent of the total state budget.
In 2008, Perry health officials under President George W. Bush for a waiver allowing the state to limit its number of Medicaid beneficiaries and create a less generous benefits plan. That request was rejected.
And in 2011, Perry signed legislation asking the feds for a Medicaid block grant, a capped amount of money that would have come with more flexibility for the state to toy around with spending. That proposal also hit a dead end.
Asked about previous attempts to get federal permission to change the state鈥檚 Medicaid program had failed, Schwertner acknowledged that those requests went unapproved.
鈥淭he federal government has been very unwilling to work with increased flexibility,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we are calling for increased flexibility to preserve the Medicaid program.鈥
State Rep. , D-Houston, said Monday that the proposals were “a nonstarter and everyone knows it.”
“We should be following the example of other Republican states who are finding fiscally responsible solutions to closing the coverage gap rather than increasing it,” Coleman said in a statement.
Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia Medicaid under the federal law.
